Monday, December 14, 2009

Welcome to Beyond Romance, my new blog. I've been toying with the idea of opening a personal blog for nearly a year. When my latest novel was accepted by Total-E-Bound, I decided to bite the bullet, take the plunge, sally forth into the fray...whatever.

For the next two weeks, I'll be hosting a Grand Opening Party here at Beyond Romance. Every day I will give away an autographed copy of one of my print titles to one of the people who leaves a comment. So please, don't stay anonymous, or you'll miss your chance to win.

On December 28th, the release date for Necessary Madness, I'll randomly select one individual commenter to receive my grand prize: a six-pack of my ebooks including a copy of the new release. You can win a daily prize and still be eligible for the grand prize... so I hope that you'll visit and comment often.

Anyway, I thought I'd begin by answering questions that you might have about me or my blog.

1. Does the world really need another author blog?

Well - honestly? - no, not really. However, I couldn't resist. I wanted my own blog for a couple of reasons.

For the last year I've been a member of the group blog Oh Get A Grip. I post once a week, every Sunday, on a selected topic. The Grip has been a blast, but as I've gotten into blogging, I've discovered that I sometimes have things to share that don't fit in with the weekly topic.

I've started doing guest appearances on the blogs of other authors, but that, too, is only occasional. I need a "room of my own" where I can sound off when I feel the urge.

Another motivation for Beyond Romance is that I can now reciprocate and offer my writing peers the opportunity to appear on my blog. In fact I plan to host guest bloggers every Wednesday and Friday.

If you are an author and would like to schedule an appearance, just email me at:

2. Do you plan to post every day?

During the Grand Opening, I'll have new content each day, either from me or a guest. Once things settle down, I'll post at least three days a week and have guests on an additional two days. If you'd like to know when I've added a new post, just use the subscription widget over on the left.

3. Why is the blog titled "Beyond Romance"?

I'm more than just a romance author. I write erotica and erotic thrillers. My husband keeps pushing me to write a mystery. And I love science fiction. At some point I'm sure that I'll try my hand at producing a full length scifi title.

To be honest, I don't like to be put in a box. I believe that the distinction between "erotic romance" and "erotica" is somewhat artificial. (I'll probably return to this theme in the future.) I worry that the micro-genres that pervade the romance world tend to encourage readers to stick with the familiar rather than experimenting with something new.

In the erotic romance realm, I've written heterosexual, menage, gay and lesbian stories. I write BDSM and paranormal, contemporary and a bit of historical. Basically, I'll try anything!

I grew up in the sixties. I'm a bit of a rebel. And I hate being bored.

Forever. I have always had a love affair with words. I started writing fiction and poetry pretty much as soon as I learned how to hold a pencil. I've written lots of non-fiction, too, in the service of my profession.

(I don't write full time. I love my day job too much.)

My first publication in the erotica/romance genre was in 1999, when Black Lace released my novel Raw Silk.

5. What do you do when you're not writing?

Aside from working, I enjoy reading (of course), listening to music, cooking, watching films, and playing with my two cats. In my younger days I was a dancer. Lately my joints are not quite up to that, but I still try to exercise a couple of times a week.

One of my great passions, which I share with my husband of twenty seven years, is traveling. Unfortunately having day jobs interferes a bit with wandering the world, but together we have visited every continent except Australia and Antarctica. Meanwhile our travel wish list is still several pages long!

In addition to writing, I review erotica and erotic romance for the Erotica Readers and Writers Association and Erotica Revealed websites. I also write the monthly newsletter for ERWA. Finally, I've edited several collections of erotica. I am now the editor for the single author charity anthology series, Coming Together: Presents. I'll be bringing out at least three collections by my favorite authors during the next year.

So, that's probably enough for now. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask them in a comment, or just send me email.

Congratulations on the new blog. I am glad I'll be learning more about you and your works. I also love your name. It gives me hope that it will be something others than just promos and excerpts. We do care about authors and want to know about how their minds work out stories.Congrats again.